Which of the following is a characteristic of frequency distributions?

• A. They always display data in ascending order only.
• B. They are only used for qualitative data and not for quantitative data.
• C. They organize data into classes or intervals to show how frequently each value occurs.
• D. They require that all class intervals have different widths.

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand what a frequency distribution is: it is a way to organize data to show how often each value or range of values occurs in a dataset.
2. Recognize that frequency distributions can be used for both qualitative (categorical) and quantitative (numerical) data, so the statement that they are only for qualitative data is incorrect.
3. Know that frequency distributions do not have to display data only in ascending order; they can be arranged in various ways depending on the context.
4. Frequency distributions typically organize data into classes or intervals (for quantitative data) or categories (for qualitative data) and count the frequency of data points in each class or category.
5. Class intervals in frequency distributions do not have to have different widths; in fact, they often have equal widths to make interpretation easier, so the statement that all class intervals must have different widths is false.